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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

War on Christmas Is Over, If You Want It... (pt 1)

There's a lot to hate about the so-called War on Christmas. I hate the trolling and looking for fights where there are none. I hate the misplaced anger. I hate the out-of-whack priorities. I hate the violent-centric, bloodlusty name.

There's so much more and I could do a series on it*. Fortunately our friends at The Christian Left introduced us to a blogger calling him(her?)self Fat Pastor, who addressed many of these issues wonderfully three years ago.

If you want to keep Christ in Christmas, worry about things more important than the signs and decorations at JC Penney. You think Christmas should be about Christ? Then take up your cross and follow Jesus – not into department stores, but into the prisons, the hospitals, among the poor and the outcast. You get angry when someone doesn’t say “Christmas?” Try getting angry over Christ’s children dying of malnutrition or AIDS. Try getting angry over the fact that the Christmas chocolate you love so much was kept cheap on the back of the working poor. Try getting angry over the fact that Christians are keeping people out of churches with their closed minds and closed doors.

You want to keep Christ in Christmas? Try putting Christ in your life first. Then we’ll talk about how to greet each other. And if you want a truly Christian greeting, one that makes no mistake whether or not you follow the Christ child, try, “the peace of Christ be with you.”

I'm not offended either way, to be honest. PC is silly when we go out of the way to be inoffensive but haven't consulted those we're trying to not offend. And since I've never heard of anyone being offended by the term "Christmas" tree, I can't argue for sure whether or not it's a good idea.

However, to play the devil's advocate (and long-term readers will know that I'm TRULY playing devil's advocate when they hear the name of the person I'm using for this example), Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago just lit up our "holiday" tree. Being that Rahm is Jewish, should he have been expected to open up the Christmas tree? And if we're going to be considerate for him, shouldn't we be considerate for all who have also been hurt by a lack of respect?